Richard Gere Checks Into 'The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' in the New Trailer (VIDEO)

A new trailer for "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" brings back the full cast from the 2012 original, who waste no time cracking wise about their advanced ages.

Hotel manager Sonny (Dev Patel) gets the ball rolling by discussing the ritual of taking a morning roll call, "to ensure that nobody has died in the night." Judi Dench opens up to Maggie Smith with a soul-searching revelation -- "The difference between what we want and what we fear is the width of an eyelash," she muses -- only to have the latter woman admit she didn't even realize Dench was talking.

There's also a brief glimpse of new hotel guest Richard Gere, a dashing American (not a stretch of a role) who charms the female Marigold residents. We're rooting for the saucy woman who not-so-subtly propositioned him to seal the deal by film's end.

In addition to Patel, Dench, and Smith, Bill Nighy is also back for another stay at the Marigold.

Some of the sequels on this list were driven by passion, others by fan demand, but this is a case of sheer financial obligations creating a follow-up that didn't need to exist. Indeed, director Francis Ford Coppola had resisted pleas from the studio for a third installment, until debts accrued in the making of his disastrous "One From the Heart" and a string of flops forced him to finally pay the piper. Coppola managed to wrangle most of the key cast back, and despite a much-loathed turn by daughter Sofia as Michael Corleone's daughter, it racked up enough cash and Oscar nods to redeem the director in the eyes of his Hollywood masters. Still, it could have been worse: After years trying to do the film without Coppola, Paramount nearly made it in 1986 with Sylvester Stallone in front of and behind the camera!